Nabbed it and have already got my money's worth. Downloaded full versions of Gloomhaven, Arkham Horror LCG, Dead of Winter, and a bunch more, all of which you can play with others online. Already planning a Gloomhaven campaign with folks back home.

Now, these are all fan made mods that are available for free, so I'm not entirely sure of the legality of it all but I know at least the Gloomhaven one has the blessing of the creator.

It's brill. After a bit of faffing I spent this arvo playing through the intro campaign of the Arkham Horror card game and once you've got used to it, the whole thing is almost seamless. The mod has every single add on and deluxe expansion too... That's a whole lot of game.

Went to the Brick Live Lego event at the NEC today. Weirdly there was a board game stall that also had an area for playing games. Long story short, I ended up spunking out an awful lot of money on a game called Stuffed Fables. It's a lovely looking box filled with all manner of interesting stuff. The game itself is based on a big wirebound book where every other page is a game board. You progress through the adventure by choosing where to go next in the book. Kind of like Fighting Fantasy. £57 though, probably wasn't a sensible use of money.

(Not pictured - 7 other decks for the scenario (and about 10 not used) and a Mythos Cup/Bag. There is a lot going on in this)

This seduced me after I accidentally ended up in the local board game shop (that's my story and I'm sticking with it)

Really liked it. It learns from Arkham, Eldritch, Elder sign, MoM, the LCG and few others to make an invovling, but streamlined (ish) set.

There's a lot to keep track of - and lots of different decks, shuffling, drawing (from top and bottom of decks), adapting - but it never feels like "downtime" things are always moving along.

The rules are close enough to previous games to be familiar (but also occasionally too close and misdirect you when things have changed)

It pulls together nicely that are now 3 main tasks;

Clue gatheringMonster FightClearing up Doom.

If you lose focus on one of them - you'll fail (and probably quickly). We focused on Clues when we appeared to be under time pressure, and the Doom quickly overflowed and finished it. Each character card now gives an clear explicit instruction on what you specifically should focus on. I'd suggest you listen

The myriad of decks, shuffling, 3 options of each cards etc should keep things fresh for a while if re-running scenarios. Certainly felt like a lot more variation on things than the LCG or MoM.

The other thing that's different (for my) is Mythos cup. It has X tokens in you draw 2 and resolve when it's time. But you don't replace. You keep drawing 2 each round, until the bag is empty. Then you replace and start again. So while there's RNG in terms of order/timing - everything (good and bad) in the bag WILL happen before the bag is reset, unlike previously when ever draw had the same odds. Not sure how I feel about that change.

It's really modular like most FFG stuff and you can see how they can easily add in more stuff. It comes with a large number of investigators, but only 4 scenarios. While each scenario will have replayability would have like one or two more.

I'd like to try some of these games. Me and the Mrs love playing splendor for example, and the star wars risk I got for SS a few years back, but they're really expensive to take a punt on and then find you don't really get on with it.

Ad7 wrote:I'd like to try some of these games. Me and the Mrs love playing splendor for example, and the star wars risk I got for SS a few years back, but they're really expensive to take a punt on and then find you don't really get on with it.

If you like Splendor (eurgh. Everyone I know raves but I hate it) try this

Ad7 wrote:I'd like to try some of these games. Me and the Mrs love playing splendor for example, and the star wars risk I got for SS a few years back, but they're really expensive to take a punt on and then find you don't really get on with it.

If you're looking for 2 player games I can highly, highly recommend Star Wars Rebellion. It looks intimidating as strawberry float but it's actually fairly simple and it's so, so much fun.

Ad7 wrote:I'd like to try some of these games. Me and the Mrs love playing splendor for example, and the star wars risk I got for SS a few years back, but they're really expensive to take a punt on and then find you don't really get on with it.

If you're looking for 2 player games I can highly, highly recommend Star Wars Rebellion. It looks intimidating as strawberry float but it's actually fairly simple and it's so, so much fun.

Ad7 wrote:I'd like to try some of these games. Me and the Mrs love playing splendor for example, and the star wars risk I got for SS a few years back, but they're really expensive to take a punt on and then find you don't really get on with it.

Also check for groups near you (Meet Up for instance)

Go and play others games for free!

Or find a local shop (no idea in South Wales) and they'll often be a library or demo copy. Or take the missus for a weekend to Oxford and go the Thirsty Meeples cafe.